Salty Breezes and Sunlit Skies
by claraowl
Summary: In which JNPR enjoys a day at the beach, Ren becomes the Supreme Crab Overlord, Nora is queen of the sand castle, Pyrrha takes a dip, and Jaune finally gets a clue. Shameless arkos fluff, with some renora and a passing bumbleby mention. Enjoy, but beware. As of the second chapter, it will work with cannon.
1. Throughout the Brilliant Day

**Hello, all! ^^ I return with my very first arkos-centric fic. Please forgive me if they're a bit OoC, as I've not written much for them before and I do not own RWBY. This is a gift for my sempai for finishing her online class. :3 Enjoy!**

The sun was bright - a bit too bright, Jaune thought, squinting up at the sky - but at least the day was a pleasant one. He had been afraid that the temperature would be too high for their outing, but it had cooperated; team JNPR had been able to make a weekend trip to the beach. Originally, team RWBY had planned to join them, but had been forced to remain at Beacon due to an incident involving milk, seven corks, a radio, and a roomful of vanilla-extract-filled water balloons. Zwei was fine; his humans… not so much. Thus, JNPR had taken on the oh-so-rough task of enjoying a day at the beach. They had arrived a few minutes ago; Nora had immediately dragged Ren out into the waves, pausing only long enough to inflate their sloth-shaped floatie and smear on some sunscreen. Pyrrha had apologized before trotting off to find a restroom, as she had not thought to put her suit on prior to their departure for the beach. This left Jaune to spread out their sheet, weigh it down with rocks, and wrestle their lion umbrella into the sand. The mane jutted up, odd wire-supported addition that it was, setting their umbrella apart from the multitude that sprouted from the sand like overgrown mushrooms. He had just managed to get it steadied and was in the act of removing his t-shirt when Pyrrha's voice rang out from behind him.

"I'm sorry about making you set all that up on your own, Jaune! I was just coming back to help."

"Nah, it's fine," he replied, pulling his shirt off the rest of the way and turning to face her. "It wasn't all that - _woah._ " His mouth suddenly seemed to be made of the same substance as the beach; he began blinking rapidly. "I - you - _woah,_ " he repeated.

"You don't look too bad yourself," Pyrrha replied, a smirk playing across her lips even as her cheeks colored. "That shade of red suits you - your trunks, I mean."

"Th-thanks." He shook his head as Zwei so often did after bathing. "Yours looks great, too, it's so small - I mean, shiny. It's so gold. Yes. Um. Pattern! The pattern is - cool. It really draws attention to the right areas! Wait, I mean -"

Fortunately, Nora chose that moment to call to the pair, "Oi, lovebirds! Get in the water already!" While embarrassing, this shout saved Jaune the trouble of having to dig a hole in the sand and perform his ostrich impression out of sheer embarrassment.

"It is rather refreshing," Ren added from his position atop the sloth floatie, mere moments before Nora flipped it over. He surfaced, sputtering, before swinging his braid out of his face and - much to the surprise of the lovebirds on the beach - tackling Nora into the water.

"Just give us a minute to put on sunblock!" Pyrrha called back. She then walked over to her bag and bent to get her sunscreen, rendering Jaune incapable of blinking or breathing for several long moments. It was only when Pyrrha snapped her fingers in front of his face that his consciousness crashed back into the realm of reality. "Jaune?"

A nervous laugh spilled out of his mouth. "I totally wasn't staring, why do you ask?"

"I was asking if you would help me with my sunblock. I can't reach my back at all, and this bottle isn't metal, so…." Her mouth twitched, as if she were hiding a laugh.

"Help? As in rub? On - on you?"

"Well, it's not like the sand needs much sunblock," she chuckled, giving in to the laughter. "Yes, Jaune. On my back, please. Unless you don't want to, I could ask someone else."

"Yes, I would love to help you with sunscreen, just - uh - lie down there and I'll smear it all over you - um, I mean - yeah." He took the bottle she handed him, dropped it in the sand, and ducked down to get it, cheeks aflame.

Pyrrha's eyes traced his body unnoticed as she laid down in front of him, propped up on her elbows, face towards him. She knew in some small corner of her mind that this might be overkill, but the reader might understand why she was going so far, given Jaune's usual state of obliviousness. "...Jaune?"

"Y-Y-Yes?" he spluttered, tearing his eyes up to meet hers.

"Sunblock?"

"Right! Sunblock!" Another nervous laugh bubbled out of his throat, and he walked around to kneel next to her, squirting the thick white liquid into his palm as he did so. Pyrrha yelped upon contact. "Sorry!"

"It's fine, it's just a bit cold." She shifted a bit on the towel, and then started speaking again. "Oh! Right, hold on." Having said this, she reached behind herself and untied the back of her bikini top, letting the strings fall onto the towel.

"Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-What are you doing?" His hands froze inches above her now completely bare back.

"Well, bikini straps move in the water, so I wanted to make sure that I didn't get any weird tans or sunburns from them. That's why I thought it would be best to move them while you're putting on the sunblock," she explained, smiling. "I thought you grew up with sisters?"

"Oh. Yeah, I did. They usually just moved the straps up and down when they glopped it on, is all. I guess I just didn't think." He laughed, running a lotiony hand through his hair. "Aw, man -"

Pyrrha laughed. Jaune could feel the vibrations as he lowered his hands to her back again, marvelling at the way the muscles shifted, at the raw power hidden beneath her soft curves, in each defined line. He pretended that his hands were not shaking as he smoothed the lotion across her skin, rubbing it in small circles. A memory of his father rubbing his mother's back after a long day cut through his mind then, sharp and clear, and took him by surprise; he could easily imagine such a future like that for them, hunting and living together until they could hunt no more, until dust turned to dust. He gave his head a shake, clearing away the image; that was too much to ever hope for, right? They were far too young. They would have years, decades for things like that to happen. All he needed to do right now was finish putting sunblock on her back so they could enjoy their beach day.

"Mmm…"

"Sorry, did I push too hard?"

"No, you're just… really good at backrubs. I need to get you to start doing these after practice."

"Sounds like a good plan." _Give me any innocent reason to touch you._ "Alright, you're good."

"Thank you, Jaune. Tie me, please?"

"Y-Yeah." He swallowed, fumbling with the too-thin strap; it took several attempts for his slimy hands to form a decent knot. "There you go."

She sat up, and the two spent a couple of minutes getting their own sunscreen rubbed in before he made to stand, only to be stopped by Pyrrha's hand on his arm. "Your turn! It wouldn't do to have you get sunburned after you were so careful with me, would it?"

"Oh, right." He gave her a half-grin and laid down where she had been minutes before. "Then please, go ahead."

"Don't mind if I do," she smiled, and he suddenly felt a weight just below the small of his back.

"P-Pyrrha?"

"I'm sorry, Jaune! I just… you've gotten so _big_ \- from training, I mean - that the only way I can reach all of you is by straddling you. Am I too heavy?" He felt the muscles in her thighs tighten a bit as she shifted apprehensively, as if afraid she had gone too far.

"N-N-No, not at all! You're good! I don't mind, you can straddle me any time you want! I mean - ugh…" He trailed off, planting his face in the sand with a muffled groan.

"That's good to know," she hummed, squirting a healthy measure of lotion onto his back. "Maybe I'll take you up on that in the future."

He whipped his head out of the sand so quickly that his neck cracked. "What?"

"Well, if you're giving me post-practice massages, it's only fair that I return the favor, right?" she inquired, working the lotion with her fingers.

"True… mmmmn. You're not half-bad at this either. Much better than my little sisters… they always punched me…."

Her fingers seemed to dance over his back muscles, swirling the lotion over his skin with careless precision, making and erasing patterns in a matter of seconds. She savored the sensation, lotiony as it was, for when else could she be this close to him? But all too soon, the lotion process was complete, and she knew it was time to move. Or rather, she would have moved, had Jaune not asked, "Done, right?"

"Yes, you're all done."

"Then scoot forward a bit, and hold onto my shoulders."

She obeyed, and he attempted to prevent his brain from short-circuiting at the sensation of her bare inner thighs slipping along his lotioned back. "May I ask why - oh!" She let out a startled laugh as Jaune rose to his hands and knees and began crawling towards the water, Pyrrha riding his back like a small child playing horsey. Her laughter only increased when a wave came in, splashing her noble steed in the face; the sound drew Ren and Nora's attention. Nora, grinning, observed as Jaune crawled forward a few more feet before Pyrrha dismounted.

"Man, Pyrrha, riding Jaune in front of everybody? Save it for the bedroom!"

Pyrrha tripped and landed face-first in an oncoming wave.

* * *

The four of them swam for some time, bickering over the sloth floatie and taking great joy in swimming beneath it to dump off whoever happened to have it at that moment. Eventually, Ren and Nora swam back towards the beach to start building sand castles, as they had been swimming for much longer than Jaune and Pyrrha had. Jaune held dominion over the sloth floatie; Pyrrha leaned on it at his head so they could talk. Her fingers idly stroked the sloth's painted-on fur as the content pair drifted with the ebb and flow of the waves.

"It's been a long time since I've been to the beach," she sighed, her toes dragging along the sand below the waves.

"Really? Why?"

"I've been too busy training, with tournaments and such. Besides, I never really had any friends to go with, and my mother was never all that fond of the beach." She smiled up at him, leaning her cheek against the warm plastic of the sloth. "So it's nice to be able to go now, with all of you! It's kind of like… being with my family again. It's nice being treated like I'm an actual person."

"W-Well, yeah! You're our Pyrrha! How else would we treat you?" He raised an eyebrow, daring to reach out and run a hand through her hair, grinning. "And as for being family - what else would we be? We're a team, right?"

"Of course!" She returned his grin, leaning into his hand. "Thank you."

"For what?"

At this, she became shy, looking up at him through her damp lashes. "Well… since I met all of you, I've not been lonely. It's… a wonderful feeling. So thank you for being my… my friend."

He swallowed, a bit unbalanced by the sudden change in atmosphere. "Y-Y-Yeah! And you, too! I'm really glad I met you." His hand left her hair to rub the back of his neck; the two descended into an awkward sort of silence.

After a few moments more of floating, Pyrrha slid her elbows off the floatie to duck underneath the water; upon surfacing, she asked Jaune, "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That clicking - listen."

 _Click clic-click clic-clic._

"Yeah, I hear it!" he said, sitting up on the floatie. "What is it?"

"I think it might be submarines, communicating in Morse code! I wonder if there's one nearby!"

 _Click click click-click._

"Cool!" He squinted towards the horizon, as if hopeful that he might see a periscope. "D'you think it's far?"

 _Click-click-click._

"Maybe," she giggled. "I'm not sure how well sound travels underwater."

 _Click-click click-click._

"C'mon, let's go investigate," he grinned, holding out a hand to her. "Get on the floatie so we can stick together."

"Alright." She took his hand, letting him help her scramble onto the sloth's back. She set two rocks on it next to her thigh and leaned against his back as he began propelling them deeper into the water with his legs.

"...Huh? I think it stopped."

"That it did," she concurred, her voice shaking with laughter.

"What's so funny?" he inquired, twisting around to face her.

She held up the rocks. "Kind of small for a submarine, no?"

"What?" He blinked.

In answer, she held a rock in each hand, dipped them into the water, and tapped them together.

 _Click click-click click._

Comprehension dawned on his face, and she burst fully into laughter.

"Pyrrha…!" he growled, lunging towards her and tickling her sides in punishment. "You had me all excited about submarines!"

"I'm sorry!" she gasped, dropping the rocks as she shook with laughter. "Please, mercy!"

"Never!" he declared, tickling her more. "And I'm not wearing any metal, so you can't stop me!"

"We'll see about _that_!" she laughed, and retaliated.

Eventually, they both fell off the floatie, and calmed down a bit. Pyrrha crawled back onto the sloth and Jaune took her previous position, leaning on its edge. They floated in silence for a few moments, worn out from their exertion. The scent of the water wafted over them, coaxing their eyes to droop a bit; they exchanged a sleepy smile. Pyrrha's hair, which had snapped free of its hair tie during their tickle fight, draped in wet strands over the sloth's head. Jaune ran his fingers through it, marvelling at its shine and texture.

"I don't remember the last time I saw you with your hair down. It's gorgeous."

"Th-Thank you!" Pyrrha stuttered, bright red at this sudden compliment.

"Huh?" Jaune's head snapped up, his own cheeks flaring. "...Did I say that out loud?"

"You did." She gave a nervous laugh, tucking a strand of their topic of discussion behind her ear.

"Oh." He slid off of the sloth and began submerging himself in the water until only his hair was floating above the waves. As she watched, he went completely under, and swam off; before she could look to see where he went, something hit the bottom of her floatie, and she crashed into the water.

She came up, sputtering, to see a sodden Jaune grinning at her. "You _dunked_ me!"

"Yup! Revenge for the submarine!"

"Was tickling me not enough?" she laughed, grabbing ahold of the escaping sloth's back leg.

"Never!" he declared, before sighing. "Want to head in? Nora said something about building a sand castle."

"Sure," Pyrrha smiled, turning towards the beach. "Ah. She seems to have finished it already."

Nora's voice echoed over the water from her perch atop her gigantic sand castle. "I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle!"

The pair looked at each other, laughed, and struck out for shore, dragging the floatie behind them.

* * *

Nora, it transpired, had built a sand castle much larger than she ought to have been able. As a result of the castle's sheer mass, she had also made a moat around it - all that sand had to come from somewhere, after all. The castle had a room within it, where Ren was carefully forming pancakes out of sand - sandcakes. The outside edges and main supports were made of glass - as, after all, when electricity meets sand, it makes glass. Ren, for his part, admired the delicate work that this took, even if Nora had been very particular about the width and thickness of his sandcakes. She had even used her static to turn the edges of his sandcakes 'crispy.' He invited the partners to enter the stronghold, and to mind the glass moat-sloths. They did so, marvelling at their teammates' capacity to collaborate on ridiculous creations.

"Sandcake?" Ren offered, gesturing to the sand-and-glass sculpture half his size.

"No, no, no!" Nora interrupted, dropping through the hole in the ceiling that served as a trap door. "Renny, you didn't put any syrup on it - here!" And she dumped a bucket of water over the top of his carefully crafted sandcakes.

"Nora…."

"Yes?"

Ren sighed, and instead motioned to their picnic basket, which was sitting beneath their lion-shaped umbrella - around both of which the boop troupe had built the sand castle. "Food?"

"Indeed! Let us feast!" Exchanging bemused looks, Jaune and Pyrrha sat with the builders of sand fortifications to do just that.

Ren had truly packed a feast for them: The picnic basket contained an entire watermelon, multiple sandwiches of various types, four each of both bottled water and apple juice boxes, and a bag of grapes. He had also brought a blindfold which he, to the bewilderment of Jaune and Pyrrha, tied around Nora's eyes before handing her Magnihild and pointing her towards the watermelon. A moment later their confusion vanished, as Nora brought Magnihild down upon the watermelon with great vigor, sending great chunks flying towards the glass walls of their sand castle. Ren then untied her blindfold, commented that he was surprised she had hit it with her first shot, and the two then set about gathering up the splattered pieces. Ignoring Jaune and Pyrrha's startled countenances, the boop troupe dumped the pieces in the previously-unnoticed water-filled cooler brought specifically for this purpose.

"Watermelon?" Ren inquired calmly, once their task had been completed.

"Or grapes! They're little packets of energy!" Nora exclaimed, eating several of them at once.

"I think I'll start with sandwiches, thanks." Jaune reached into the basket and pulled out several at once, handing them around. "What type do you want, Pyr?"

 _Pyr?_ "Um - peanut butter and jam?"

Sensing her confusion, he corrected himself: "I mean Pyrrha! Pyrrha. Nor Pyr."

"You can call me Pyr if you want to, Jaune," she murmured, accepting the sandwich he handed her. "I've never had a nickname before. I'm glad we're that close."

He gave her a half-grin in return, and as a consequence of his divided attention, he bit into the wrapper on his sandwich. "Blah!"

"Generally, Jaune," Pyrrha laughed, "you unwrap your sandwich _before_ you eat it."

"Right!" Nora declared, jumping back into the conversation and snatching a cheese sandwich. "Plastic is gross! Almost as gross as _someone's_ energy drinks!"

A mildly miffed Ren looked up from his chunk of watermelon. "Excuse me, my energy drinks are delicious _and_ nutritious."

"Sure, Renny, keep telling yourself that." Nora winked at Pyrrha and grabbed a box of apple juice, stabbing the straw through the hole.

Jaune, for his part, was preoccupied with attempting to figure out as many ways as he possibly could to work Pyrrha's new nickname into conversation. "So, Pyr, water or juice?"

"Um - water, please."

"Here you go, Pyr."

"Thanks, Jaune…?" She raised an eyebrow at his antics, wondering if he was doing this on purpose.

"Hmm?" He leaned forward, raising his own water bottle to his lips and taking a slow sip.

"Nothing." She shook her head, taking a bite of her sandwich, and turned to observe Ren and Nora's in-depth discussion of the benefits of making sand castles into glass castles. They continued in this vein until after their sandwiches were long gone and they had collectively moved on to fruit. It was only when Jaune accidentally dropped his watermelon into the sand that he interrupted the discussion.

"Hey, Pyr, I dropped my melon in the sand - will you help me rinse it off with the water from my bottle?" He held up the sandy melon, his face arranged in a deliberately overly sorrowful expression.

She agreed, took his bottle, and began squirting both the melon and him.

"Pyr! Why are you squirting me?"

"Ha!" Nora burst out. "Pyrrha, you squirted!"

Ren chopped her on the head. "Nora… no. Just no."

She gave a sheepish laugh and grinned at a flustered Pyrrha, who squirted her with the rest of Jaune's water bottle.

* * *

"What now?" Pyrrha inquired of the other three, sprawling back onto the sand after they had demolished the food and given Ren the proper thanks. Jaune tugged his shirt back on, not wanting too much more sun on his back.

"I saw an ice-cream booth a bit that ways when I was protecting the castle." Nora pointed vaguely towards one of the walls as best she could from her position draped over Ren's back. "Sloth blanket," she murmured, stuffing her face against his damp neck to stifle a yawn.

Ren, too, was yawning. "You two go on ahead. We'll -" he stifled another yawn, already slipping onto his side, "- we'll catch up in a minute."

Jaune and Pyrrha exchanged a fond look before tossing a couple of beach towels to their sleepy friends, grabbing their wallets, and slipping quietly out of the castle. The beach was busier by this time, so they had to weave around a larger number of umbrellas. A few people recognized Pyrrha, creating quite a stir; some people asked for autographs, and others invited her to join them. She refused them all politely, explaining that she was there with her friends. One particularly persistent group of males ignored this, inviting her to desert her friends and come have a good time.

"C'mon, Nikos, ditch blondie - we real men can show you a much better time! I know a great place we all can go, and get away from all these people - we'll be all alone," one leered at her.

"Thank you for your kind offer, but I must decline," she said firmly, giving her best press smile. Jaune looked warily between them, growing slowly more irked. This guy was far too pushy; Pyrrha had turned him and his friends down several times by now.

"C'mon, you're just with your friends, right? You look like you could use some good lovin -"

"No, thank you. If you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be." She began walking, Jaune at her side and glaring at the gathered men.

"You just think 'cause you're famous, you're better than us, do you, you bitch?" a drunken member of the group called, dropping his beer can on the sand. "What you need is to take that stick outta yer ass - and put a different one in, if you know what I mean!"

No sooner had he said this than had his beer can shot straight upward into a painful location. The man collapsed into the sand with a howl. One of his companions, forgetting to whom he was talking, ran to catch up with Pyrrha and Jaune, growling, "You'll pay for that, you -"

Before his hand could reach Pyrrha, he found his wrist caught by a surprisingly strong hand. "Don't you _dare_ touch her, you piece of shit."

Pyrrha, who had already settled into a fighting position, straightened in surprise. "Jaune?"

"She does not owe you her time, her smile, or _any damn thing_. She said that she did not want to spend time with you. Grow. Up. Go back to your little group of friends and leave her the hell alone. Got it?" he hissed, giving a slight twist to the man's wrist, sending a sharp jolt of pain down his arm.

"Are you crazy, buddy? Let me go!"

"Got it?" he repeated, now deathly calm, twisting the man's wrist further.

"Ow - yeah, yeah, I've got it! We'll leave her alone! Now lay off!"

Jaune released him, stepping in front of Pyrrha in that same moment. The man, mutter curses and making rude gestures, stormed back to his group of friends in humiliation.

"Jaune -"

"I'm so sorry, Pyr!" he turned around and clapped his hands together, wincing a bit. "I… I didn't mean to lose it like that. I know you can handle them. I… I didn't mean to steal your thunder or anything, I just… snapped. I'm sorry."

She blinked. "It's… fine. Thank you for stepping in, actually. I have a reputation I need to upkeep, and because of that I have to deal with them politely…" A heavy sigh slipped out of her. "So thank you for stepping in. Otherwise they would've kept bugging us all day."

"Seriously?"

She nodded. "They're often too persistent for their own good."

"...Remind me to apologize to Weiss when we get back to Beacon."

She grinned. "That's a great plan. Now shall we go get that ice cream?"

"That plan sounds even better."

Given that it was a brilliantly sunny day, the ice cream booth had quite a long line. The two of them chatted amicably back and forth, drawing shapes in the sand with their toes while waiting. Jaune, noting the length of the line, drew a hangman in the sand. "Want a hint?" he asked, marking out ten dashes in the sand below the initial sketch.

"That would be grand." She smiled, leaning against him and out of the wind. The digesting food in her stomach had chilled her a bit.

"It describes you."

"Me?"

"Yeah, you - it's an adjective… and a pun, too, I guess." He grinned.

"Then… A."

"Correct!" he said, leaning down to trace in the letters with a finger.

A _ _ _ A _ _ _ _ _

"C?" she guessed, after a moment's deliberation. In answer, he leaned down again, tracing another letter.

A _ _ _ AC _ _ _ _

"Umm… R?"

"Can you read minds?" he teased, squatting on the balls of his feet to sketch in another letter.

A _ _ RAC _ _ _ _

Kneeling in the sand next to him, she replied, "I sometimes wish I could, but no. L?"

"Nope!" This time, he traced a circle for the hangman's head, and wrote the incorrect letter to the side of it.

"See? Told you!" She nudged him in the side with her elbow, upsetting his balance and knocking him over sideways into the sand. Between giggles at his sputters, she squeaked, "I'm sorry!"

"Nah, it's fine." He gave her a half-grin, and gestured back to their game.

"O?" _It really would be nice to know what's going on inside his head…._

"Also no." He wrote that incorrect letter next to the last one, and drew the next part of the hangman's body.

"Then... V?" _I wonder if he'll notice._

"Hey, that's right, there is one! I didn't think you'd get this letter until later."

A _ _ RAC _ _ V _

"E?" _No, he didn't. But then, he is a bit oblivious at the best of times… it's probably for the best._ She leaned against him, her head coming to rest against his left shoulder.

"Y-Yup!" He sketched it slowly, careful not to displace her.

A _ _ RAC _ _ VE

She was silent for a few moments, enjoying their contact too much to fully focus, before murmuring, "T?"

"Yeah," he breathed, dragging his finger through the sand again. "Care to guess it now?"

ATTRACT _ VE

"Attractive?" She sat up, shifting so that she could look at him through her lashes in a facsimile of shyness. "I… thought you said it described me, Jaune."

"Well, yeah! Polarity and all that," he chuckled, scrambling to his feet and rubbing out the hangman with his foot. "Plus…."

"Plus?" She stood as well, brushing off sand and denying to herself that she had hoped to hear a much different explanation for the word.

His cheeks were brightly colored enough to look sunburned. "Well… you're pretty damn attractive, even without the polarity. I mean… y-you're beautiful, and funny, and patient, and -" He cut himself off, his attention snapping over to the ice cream line, which had shortened considerably during their game. "Ice cream! Yeah, ice cream! C-C'mon, Pyr."

Pyrrha, equally red-cheeked, nodded. "Ice cream." As they once more stepped into the queue, she added, "Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not bad yourself, even if you don't have any polarity." Her smile was bright, if a bit awkward, and the one he returned was equally so in both respects. The line moved, and so did they.

* * *

Some short while later, the two were strolling along the beach again, this time in the general direction of Nora's castle. The salty scent of the water mingled with the sweet, creamy flavors melting over their tongues; the sun bounced off the white sand, making them both squint a bit. A seagull flew over them hopefully, but received no handouts; they were far too caught up in their own story to notice such an element of the background.

"Thank you for the ice cream, Jaune," Pyrrha said, after some time. "You really didn't have to buy mine, you know."

"Eh, it's nothing," he replied, licking at his french vanilla. "Besides, you've bought me food before. I was just returning the favor. Your ice cream's dripping on this side, by the way."

"Ah, thank you." She turned the cone, lapping up the rolling streams of strawberry. "It's such a nice day," she said, at length.

"It is," he agreed, burying his tongue in the white cream just as she glanced over at him. "I'm glad that we could all come out here - Pyr?"

Pyrrha had stopped walking, staring transfixed at the deft movements of Jaune's tongue, at the white cream dripping down his face. The evil voice in the back of her mind wondered if he would like to lap up another type of cream. She shook her head sharply, pushing that image to the back of her mind, and hurried to catch up with her partner. "I'm sorry, Jaune! My mind just drifted off into thoughts."

"Anything interesting? You were making some pretty funny expressions," he grinned, his tongue flicking out to capture some stray drops of vanilla.

"Nope! Nothing!" A nervous laugh bubbled out of her throat, and she forgot that she was holding ice cream; when she went to pull her hand to her chest to calm herself, she smashed her ice cream cone against her skin and bikini top. "Oh, no -"

"Ah! Let me help you with that," Jaune yelped, reaching forward with his free hand before he could think. He was halfway through wiping the strawberry cream off one of her breasts before he realized why Pyrrha had gone completely still. "OH - oh dust, Pyr, I'm sorry, I didn't think - SORRY SORRY SORRY!"

"Jaune - Jaune, it's fine, just please stop waving your ice cream around! It's going to fly off the cone - eep!" For the remainder of his ice cream had, of course, flown off of his cone and landed on her forehead, where it began dripping down her face in thick white streams. Despite the copious amounts of ice cream he had previously consumed, Jaune's mouth was once again quite dry as his mind shot into overdrive, his thoughts not all that far from where Pyrrha's had been mere moments before. His eyes raked her torso and face, taking in the streams of white dripping down her face and the sheen of pink cream slicked across her bikini top, accentuating the curves and running in drips down the muscles of her stomach.

His hand drifted up to cover his dry mouth, causing strawberry cream to smear across his face. His tongue flicked out, bringing more of the sweetness into his mouth. He was not aware of Pyrrha's eyes on his tongue as it licked his fingers clean any more than she was of his thought process. She reached up and caught the remainder of the vanilla ice cream in her hands, preventing any from dripping into her eyes. This movement snapped Jaune back to reality; he gestured to the water, suggesting that they go rinse off the now-wasted ice cream. Pyrrha agreed, silently noting that had they not, Nora might have commented on the suspiciousness of sticky hands and faces. Aloud, she added, "We might as well eat what's left of our cones first. It wouldn't do to have them go to waste."

After doing so, they waded out into the salty water. Once they were out far enough, Jaune turned around to guard her while she ducked into the water to rinse the cream off of her chest and stomach. He did his best to think of anything but where her hands had to be, where _his_ hands had been - he found himself suddenly very glad of the low temperature of the water in which he stood. A slim finger tapped the small of his back, letting him know it was okay for him to turn around. The two then helped each other remove the creamy residue from their hands and faces, lest any inappropriate conclusions be drawn.

"Now that that's done," Jaune said as he wiped the last of the cream from Pyrrha's forehead, "what would you like to do now?"

"I doubt that the others will be up yet, so would you like to help me look for seashells? I must admit that I've always wanted to have a collection." She was shy as she said this, glancing up through her lashes in a calculated move. It was with a hidden sense of triumph that she saw his adam's apple bob.

A smile slid across his face, and he offered her his arm. "Well, when you put it like that, how could I say no?" And so they set off to wander the beach for some time at the edge of the water, nudging over shells with their feet and picking up the best of them to create Pyrrha's collection.

"Oh, Jaune, look at this one," Pyrrha gasped, bending down to pick up a shell. "It's purple! My mother loves purple shells."

"Yeah, it's… gorgeous." But he, in typical sap fashion, was not looking at the shell. She straightened, beaming as she held it up for him to observe. "Really breathtaking."

"It's just a shell," she replied, confused, and held it out to him. "If you like it that much, you can keep it."

"No, I - you should keep it. For your collection, yeah?" He gave her a sideways grin, pressing it back into her hands.

"Thank you," she smiled, tucking it into the shell-holder they had fashioned out of Jaune's shirt. "Oh, there's another over there - oh!"

They had both reached for the shell, and in reaching for it Jaune's hand had closed over Pyrrha's; neither of them had actually managed to pick up the shell. This was just as well, as a moment later the shell moved. Jaune jumped backward with a yelp, his hand tightening over Pyrrha's. "It _moved_!"

"Aww, it's a hermit crab! How cute!" she squatted down, pulling Jaune with her. "Look how sweet it is… oh, and there's another one! And another - wait, why are there so many?"

"Dust, we're surrounded," Jaune whimpered, gripping Pyrrha's hand a bit tighter than necessary. "Wait a sec…" The crabs were moving, scuttling around them to form a shape, pointed at one end and with two rounded areas… and a tune was floating on the air, almost as if it were giving instructions to the hermit crabs. The music grew louder as its source came closer to them, footfalls stirring up sand.

"Ren," Jaune groaned, looking up at his teammate from within the heart of the crabs, "where on earth did you get that crab flute?"

"It's not the flute!" Nora shouted, bounding up behind them and latching onto Ren's back. "I just woke Renny up from his nap, so he's still a bit… _crabby_."

"Nora…" Ren growled, taking the flute from his lips. Sensing danger, she slipped off of his back and sprinted towards the other end of the beach.

"Can't catch me!"

"Nora!" he yelled, and set out in chase of her. The crabs all raised their claws to their new crab overlord, and scuttled off in pursuit of his quarry. Their shells dragged a bit in the sand, leaving a streaky heart around Jaune and Pyrrha. The partners, left behind in the chaos, looked at each other in confusion before bursting into laughter.

"What _was_ that?" Pyrrha giggled, her free hand coming up to cover her mouth.

"Lie Ren, Supreme Crab Overlord!" Jaune guffawed, raising the shell-filled shirt dramatically and smacking himself in the head with it. "Ow!"

"Poor thing," Pyrrha crooned, leaning sideways to bump shoulders with him. "Want me to kiss it better?"

"If you want, that'd be great. These shells are pointy."

Snickering, she raised herself onto her knees next to him and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Better?"

"You missed," he said, bewildered. "The shells smacked me on the other side of my head."

"Guess I'll have to try again, then," she beamed, her cheeks flaring. This time, she placed a kiss on his other cheek. "Was it here?"

Heat that had nothing to do with the brilliant sunlight rose up his neck. "Not… not there, either. Try again?"

"Hmm… I guess I have really bad aim. Was it here?" she smiled, placing a kiss on the tip of his nose. Her grin grew wider as his cheeks grew redder. "Or here?" She dragged her lips along the line of his jaw, daring to flick her tongue out to touch his neck. "Or what about here?" Her teeth found the side of his neck; she nipped that spot lightly, enjoying the feeling of Jaune's spine straightening at the sensation.

"P-Pyr…." He was quite breathless by this time, and the sound of her name on such a voice snapped her back to reality, to the fact that they were sitting on a public beach.

"Sorry, Jaune, will you show me where it was again? I seem to have forgotten." She pulled back from him, her expression apologetic; he tapped his temple, and she brushed her lips over the spot. "There! All better!"

"Thanks," he smiled, lifting their still-entwined fingers and brushing his lips over her knuckles in return. "I feel loads better already." Standing, he tugged her to her feet and twirled her as if they were dancing. "Now, shall we go drop off our treasure at the castle?"

"That sounds grand." Her fingers gave his a reassuring squeeze as they began their sandy walk back to the sand castle, stopping every so often to pick up a new shell. They encountered no more hermit crabs, as they were all following Ren the Supreme Crab Overlord. Once there, Jaune elected to go inside to stash the shells while Pyrrha travelled back to the bathroom she had seen earlier so that she could use the facilities. However, by the time the Supreme Crab Overlord and his Loyal Sloth had returned (trailed, as they were, by hundreds of hermit crabs), Pyrrha was still not back. Thus, Jaune decided to go look for her, in case the men from earlier had followed her - and to get away from the hermit crabs, as they seemed to have something of a vendetta against him. As he had no desire to be buried in hermit crabs, he exited the castle with great haste.

"Now, how far did she go?" he muttered, glancing down the beach. Stuffing his hands in the pockets of his suit, he began strolling in the direction which she had gone, giving awkward smiles whenever he made eye contact with someone. His mind began wandering down the path of the last book he had read, _The Secret Life of Cats_. The book had been rather odd, and its factual information was of questionable quality at best, but his youngest sister had given it to him for his last birthday. Besides, cats were pleasant enough creatures - Yang was dating one, for crying out loud! Perhaps he ought to lend the book to her… but no, she might take the various superstitions and myths too seriously. Blake would probably take offense if Yang tried anything out of that book.

"Mrowr," declared a voice from the vicinity of his ankles. He glanced down, squinting a little from the brilliant sunshine reflecting up off of the sand. A pure white cat with one deep blue eye and one bright green eye was twisting itself around his ankles, purring. He huffed out a laugh and stepped back to sit down on the sand. The cat plopped down in front of him, mismatched eyes tracking his hand's movements as he reached out to pet it. Its tail twitched and waved in the salty breeze wafting off the water. The fur was silken beneath his fingers, so soft that he was uncertain if he was actually touching it. The cat shifted its head from side to side before standing and turning around, presenting him with its back and an unspoken command to continue stroking. He obeyed, so absorbed that he did not notice the approach of a second petter until he heard her voice.

"Why, hello there, little kitty! Oh - who's your new friend, Jaune?"

He looked up from the pure white cat's fur, the brilliant sunshine of the day nearly blinding him as his dark blue eyes met a familiar pair of bright green ones, as the myth from the cat book resounding in his head -

 _If you pass a white cat on a sunny day, you'll meet your true love._

And at long last, that missing piece of the puzzle clunked into place in his head. "Oh." _That… explains a lot. I'm in love with Pyrrha. No wonder…._

"Jaune?" She crouched down across from him to pet the cat as well, tilting her head to convey her confusion. This slight movement caused a piece of her still-loose hair to slip over her shoulder, the stands shimmering in the sunlight. "Is everything - ?" She cut herself off, for Jaune had removed his hand from the cat's back. His fingers caught the rogue strands of hair, tucking them tenderly behind her ear; his face held a look of awe as he beheld her, a look of comprehension that she had scarcely ever seen before on his face. However, she didn't have long to behold it; his hand slid with deft care from her hair to her jaw, guiding her forward. Her pulse was pounding in her ears in time to the crash of the waves - and then she could not hear anything at all, for her focus narrowed to his hand on her jaw, to his lips on hers. Everything else was unimportant, everything else could wait; who cared that the cat had just shot out from between them with a yowl? Who gave a damn that they were on a public beach with the sun beating down on them? What did anything else matter when after so long, she had finally gotten her dream come true?

Jaune pulled back after several long moments, his breathing unsteady. "I - I'm… I love you. I didn't - realize until… the cat."

"The cat?" she repeated, dazed.

"I read about a myth," he continued, after he had steadied his breath, "surrounding white cats and - well, true love. I know it sounds kind of cheesey, but… I saw the cat, and then I saw you, and remembered the myth. It all just… fell into place. I think… I think I've been falling in love with you for a while now. And I'm sorry for taking so long. And for kissing you without warning. I should've asked."

Pyrrha seemed not to have heard this last part, which is understandable, given her current mental state. "Y-You love me?" she squeaked, after a few moments.

"Yeah. I do." He could not bear to look up, did not dare meet her eyes. "I really do."

"Jaune…" This time, it was her hands on his jaw lifting his face up to meet hers as she clung to him, crashing their lips together as desperately as she might have in another, more dangerous life. This time, their lips tasted of salt, though he could not quite tell if one or both of them was crying, or if the flavor was a mere residue of their earlier watery excursions. Her lips opened, and he no longer cared. The crash of the waves increased in tempo, matching the staccato of their hearts. The cat, having been observing this from a safe distance, gave a solitary swish of its tail and set off down the beach towards the glass castle.

They parted, holding one another and dazed, when they had no choice but to come up for air. Their eyes met, and for a moment they were silent, tracks of salt water glistening on their cheeks. Then they laughed, the sound ringing pure and clear across the white sand, and stood to begin making their way back to the castle. Their linked hands swung between them as they walked along the water's edge, following the trail of hermit crabs.

* * *

After Ren had dismissed his loyal hermit crab underlings, the four teammates returned to the water so that they could enjoy the last few hours of sunlight. Nora insisted that they play chicken, resulting in Ren being perched on her shoulders and Jaune on Pyrrha's. This arrangement was a bit backwards from the norm, but as team JNPR rarely conforms to society's concept of normal, they continued their game without comment. The boop troupe, naturally, won. After that, Ren - _Ren_ of all people - began taunting the waves, insisting that his shouts would provoke them into growing large enough for them to bodysurf. He was quite dejected when his brilliant plan did not bear any fruit, but Nora consoled him well enough - the cat had, after all, visited them as well, and Ren had borrowed Jaune's book. Once the chill of the water settled into their bones (and Ren had carried out a blue-lipped Nora, who protested every slothy-back-ride step of the way), the boop troupe retreated to the top of their sand castle to dry off and watch the sunset. Jaune and Pyrrha elected to lie on the warm white sand in front of the castle, wrapped up in one beach towel as they were. The sun had just begun to set, sending pink streaks across the sky.

He ghosted a kiss over her forehead as he tucked her more snugly against his chest. "We'll warm up sooner if we conserve body heat."

"It did get chilly pretty quickly, didn't it?" she hummed, leaning into his embrace. Her arms wound their way around his back beneath the towel.

"Yeah. Not that I mind." He grinned at her, relishing the color that spread across her cheeks. She pressed a kiss to the base of his neck in reply before turning to watch the sinking sun.

Five, perhaps ten, minutes had passed before either of them spoke again. The sky had begun to melt into a rich burgundy hue, shot with bolts of purple. Pyrrha stifled a yawn, snuggling closer to her partner. "Mmm… I could just fall asleep here… wrapped in the arms of the man I love."

"Go ahead," he murmured, pressing a kiss to her hair, wondering if she could hear the rampant thudding of his heart. "I'll carry you back to Beacon."

"No, don't do that," she whispered, her fingers making lazy circles on his back as the sky deepened in hue.

"Why not?" Even the waves were calmer now, the crashing of earlier having slowed to a gentle sloshing against the shore.

"Let's just…" she began, her yawns coming more frequently now as she tucked her head into the crook of his neck, "...watch the sunset and fall asleep on this nice warm white sand - let's just stay here forever."

"Forever?"

"Yeah," she mumbled, now more asleep than awake. "Stay with me… forever."

"I will, Pyr." He ran a hand through her damp hair and pressed another kiss to the top of her head, waves of exhaustion rolling over him. "I promise. Forever."

The white sand slid out of his view as his eyelids shut. The sloshing of the waves grew calmer, quieter, becoming almost a rustling sound, as if they were made out of long-dried leaves instead of water. The scent of the waves grew fainter as he slipped closer to sleep; the tang of salt gave way to a deeper, earthier smell. Even the warmth of the sand seemed to be leaving; the sand itself changed, growing colder, more crystalline, crunching as he shifted. The beach towel was dry and cold, much thicker than it had been moments before, and Pyrrha seemed to be growing softer, colder, smaller….

Jaune opened his eyes to a snowy forest to find his pillow in his arms and cold tears stinging the skin of his face. His heart caved in as he curled around his pillow, the last word she had said in his dream echoing in his head.

 _Forever…._

 **...I blame my sempai. This is entirely her fault; I wanted to make this a nice, fluffy fic. She shoved the idea for the ending pain at me. Blame her.**

 **Scream at us in a review, please. XD See you next time!**


	2. Beneath the Starry Sky

**Understandably, I feel awful about the way the last chapter ended, even if it** _ **was**_ **part of the congrats-sempai-on-finishing-your-online-class request, and so decided to write a bit more. I promise that it's happy this time. (Despite the previous chapter's ending, I really do love happy endings. So on with the fluff!)**

 **Also, I would like to thank in advance a certain reviewer, DbA, for an idea. I hope you don't mind me using it - even if I do twist it slightly. Normally, I'd check, but I don't have any means of contacting you, so I hope the fluff is sufficient payment. ;)**

Cold air bit Jaune's cheek, bringing more tears to his eyes than were already there. A dream - it had been nothing but a dream. Just another dream of being somewhere warm with his team - with Pyrrha. The forest was still dark; the broken moon sneered down at him through the few dead leaves yet clinging to the otherwise barren branches of the trees. He sat up, pushing back his blanket; he needed the cold to ground him in reality. He sensed a presence, and his head whipped around. Ren was standing over him; it was his watch, apparently. Ren sat down next to him and spoke, his voice low, his eyes on their crackling fire.

"Another dream?"

"Yeah," Jaune murmured back. "Pyrrha."

"Nightmare?"

A harsh laugh. "Only when I wake up."

Ren looked at him for a long moment, his brows furrowing - almost as if something was stirring in his memory. "These… dreams. You've been having them every night?"

"Yeah. Every night since…" His voice broke, making it difficult for him to continue. "Ever since she -"

Ren nodded, letting Jaune know that he did not have to continue. He knew; they all knew. Nora whimpered in her sleep, twisted up in her blanket, reaching out into the snow. Ren scooted over to her, nudging the designated fire-stick towards Jaune so that he would have something to do with his hands. The partnerless boy took it gratefully and poked at the fire, glad that it could not quite reach the color of _her_ hair. He tried not to watch as Ren untangled Nora, tucking her blankets around her and filling her reaching hand with his own. On Nora's other side, Ruby slept on, her face hidden beneath her now-ragged cloak. Ren turned back to Jaune, Nora's head now in his lap and her arms slung around his waist.

"Jaune, I have a few questions about the dreams, if you don't mind my asking."

"Go ahead." His voice was hoarse, harsh in the bitter air.

"You said you've had them every night, right?" Ren's hand found Nora's hair, smoothing it off of her face.

Jaune let his gaze fall back on the flickering flames. "Yeah."

"Aside from that, has there been anything… unusual… about them?" Nora pressed her face against Ren's palm, seeking that small contact in her sleep.

"Unusual?" He leaned forward, poking the kindling with his fire stick. "What d'you mean?"

"Have they been cohesive or logical? Have they been telling a story?" Nora stilled on his lap, her face still pressed into his hand.

Jaune glanced over at them before turning back to the flickering flames. "Yeah, but so what? All my dreams are like that."

Ren lowered his voice, stroking Nora's hair with his other hand in an apology for their raised voices. "Ah. Well, that explains that."

"Huh?"

"Your semblance probably has something to do with the sight."

"The sight?"

"Yeah," Nora mumbled, still asleep, "twelve ostriches for ten bears. Fair trade to conquer the killer sheep..."

"As Nora so conveniently demonstrated," Ren explained, "most people's dreams are illogical, as well as incohesive. To have your dreams be an ongoing story indicates that you have something of what people in our village call -" he paused, swallowed, and continued, "used to call the sight. It's a tricky gift that's often completely useless."

Jaune's grip on the stick tightened; his voice was tense. "So my dreams?"

"From what I remember of the old tales, what you've been dreaming is what could have happened - it's essentially an alternate reality. Either that, or Pyrrha's using your dreams as a conduit to let you know that she's doing alright, wherever she is. Or maybe…" He paused, gazing down at Nora, and ran his fingers through her hair again before continuing. "Maybe whatever version of heaven exists… maybe she needs you to be there for it to be complete, and that's why you've been seeing her every night. I like to think that's the case."

Nora shifted again, letting out a soft "Please…" into the night air.

Finally pulling his eyes from the fire, Jaune turned his gaze fully to the only unseparated partners of their group of friends. There was a familiar sting in his eyes as he beheld them, observed the raw emotion painted so clearly across his usually stoic teammate's face. "I hope so, too."

"Go on, try to get some more sleep. Nora's got the next watch, but that's not for another hour. Besides," Ren smiled, the expression bittersweet, "you don't want to keep Pyrrha waiting."

"Yeah." They shifted, allowing Jaune to lie down and wrap himself in his blanket once more. He had almost drifted back to sleep before a thought occurred to him, causing him to sit back up. "Ren."

"Yes?"

"Don't wait," he croaked, looking between the two partners. "It's not my business, but if you haven't - if something happens - I just - please." He laid back down, at a loss for words; there was no clear way he could find to explain the throbbing pain that accompanied every beat of his heart.

"I… she knows. I wrote her a letter, but she found it early, right before we left to meet up with Ruby. And I'm… glad she did." A pause, and then - "Thank you, Jaune."

He nodded, knowing that the other boy could see the motion by the firelight. The flickering fire slid out of his view as his eyelids shut. The crackling of the flames shifted, the sound changing until it seemed as if it were made out of liquid. The bitter air lost its bite; the earthy smell of the forest gave way to the tang of salt. He could feel his blanket growing thinner, becoming damp; the chill of the snow transformed into the soft warmth of sand. And his pillow, so small and cold, began expanding, growing firmer, warmer, larger - until he could have sworn that it was made out of skin and muscle instead of worn cotton and feathers. A song was playing across the breeze, twisted to the slosh of the waves.

His eyes flickered open to reveal Pyrrha leaning over him, her damp hair tickling his throat as stars began twinkling behind her in the sky. She smiled, and he could have sworn that the stars disappeared for a moment. "You're awake!"

"Sorry, Pyr, did I fall asleep?" He blinked; he had the distinct notion that he had just been thinking about something important. Perhaps he would remember when they returned to Beacon - for now, Pyrrha was speaking again, and that was all that mattered to him.

"Mhmm. I did, too. I'm surprised Nora's singing didn't wake you up." She nodded towards the roof of the sand castle, where Ren and Nora were sitting. Ren was playing his flute, eyes trained on Nora as she sang a song with which Jaune was unacquainted. It seemed to be in an older language, one that was at once familiar and foreign; something told him that it was a language that had been spoken by some members of their village, all those years ago.

"She has a nice voice," he whispered, tugging Pyrrha down so that she could lie next to him and observe the stars.

"She does," Pyrrha agreed, reaching over and intertwining their fingers. "I didn't know that Ren had such musical talent, either."

"I guess today was a day for discoveries, eh?" His fingers squeezed hers, and she smiled, leaning over to press a kiss to his cheek. They fell silent, listening to the song that seemed to dance with the waves.

The song told tales long forgotten; the stories twirled out over the water, floating in the darkness and flying up to vanish among the stars. The sand shifted in response; the hermit crabs had returned, flooding the castle with their scuttling shells. Pyrrha rolled onto her side, the words washing over her like the salty water had earlier that day. Her fingers traced patterns over Jaune's bare chest, pushing the towel aside to sketch over more of his skin. He hummed, a soft sound of satisfaction that had her skipping her fingers up to trace his neck; the vibration shuddered through her fingers. The exploring digits found a sensitive spot, and he yelped, breaking the moment. The music above them ended, the players now involved in another activity.

"Jaune, are you… ticklish?" Pyrrha asked, raising herself to a kneeling position.

"What? No!" his nervous laugh all but negated his denial. "N-Not at all!"

"You are." A smirk spread across her face, and in a moment's movement she was straddling him again, her fingers poised for the attack. "Any last words, O knight?"

"Shouldn't have asked," he grinned, and flipped them, one of his hands coming up to pin her wrists in the sand. " _Now_ let's see who's the ticklish one."

She let out a scream of laughter as he began, but could not thrash her legs; he had pinned her quite well - something he had learned during their long training sessions. Naturally, she could have gotten out of his hold were it necessary, but she knew that Jaune would not hurt her. His fingers held no mercy; they attacked the bare skin of her waist, finding and exploiting the sensitive spots. She squirmed, giggling, and met his eyes. Wearing a grin that bared his teeth, Jaune leaned down and nipped at her neck; a gasp tore from her throat, and he retreated into less dangerous waters, murmuring an apology against her skin. His other hand slipped from her wrists as he renewed his attack, his newly free hand dancing down to her thigh, teasing the muscles there. Her breath stuttered, but he did not cease; sensing the weakness of the spot, he knelt back enough to allow both hands to explore the area. Not until she spoke, gasping for breath, did he realize exactly how close to the lower part of her swimsuit his hands had strayed.

"P-Please… have mercy…." Her skin was slick with sweat - and perhaps something else - and her chest heaved from the physical stress of being tickled; her hair was splayed out along the sand, still damp from their earlier swim. Jaune was enthralled by the image; his hands stilled, and the tension drained from his body. He would be happy to just sit here, observing her, for eternity… and not even that could be long enough.

Jaune paid dearly for his moment of distraction; Pyrrha, having calculated the effect, took advantage of the drop in his guard to flip him off of her and into the moat. What she had not calculated, however, was the strength of his flailing hand's grip. He caught her shoulder as he fell, and they both tumbled into the dry trench. His hand slipped along her shoulder, unintentionally pulling at the strap of her suit. The knot connecting the two straps, loosened by their actions in the sand, came undone. She snatched at the suit, trying to hold it up, but they were still rolling; Nora's castle was absurdly large, thus necessitating an equally ridiculous moat. The straps, damp from the water and slick from sunscreen, slipped out of her grasp. Jaune landed with a thud in the cold sand at the bottom of the moat; she landed directly on top of him a moment later, her bikini top upside-down and failing to perform any of its covering duties.

"Oh dust," Jaune whimpered, having taken stock of the situation. "I'm sorry, Pyr, I - uh…" His voice trailed off; Pyrrha had attempted to shift, and the resulting sensation of shifting skin-to-skin contact had distracted him. The rapid thumping of her heart was pressed against his own; he trained his eyes skyward, uncertain as to what he should do, but aware that looking where he wished would be a violation. He prayed that the rest of his body would remain as obedient as his eyes.

Pyrrha, for her part, was counting her breaths to calm herself. Her first, mercifully mastered instinct had been to push backwards and sit up, but that would have been far too revealing. Besides, the air _had_ grown a bit chill since the sun had gone to sleep; a bit of body heat would not go amiss. She shifted again, feeling the squish of fatty tissue against muscle, and began attempting to maneuver her suit back into place without sitting up. This attempt failed, as no two objects can occupy the same space at the same moment in time. Her teeth worried her bottom lip as she glanced up at Jaune's face, meeting his eyes; his gaze flicked away, his face a guilty shade of red. The reason as to why became clear to her when she slid her knee upward, trying to find a way to sit up without flashing him; an unfamiliar length of muscle that belonged to neither of his legs met the bare skin of her thigh.

Her skin flushed with realization and she jolted backwards, doing the very thing she had initially avoided. The moment did not last long, however; she used her backwards momentum to turn, and then was finally able to get her top back into its proper place. Behind her, a stunned Jaune was doing his best to stutter apologies, now sitting cross-legged with his hands braced in front of him. Pyrrha turned once she was covered again. "It's alright, Jaune, I've been half-expecting something like that to happen all day. Hazards of wearing a bikini. Just make sure it doesn't happen again, okay?"

"Y-Yeah. I'm sorry, though. I didn't mean to do that. I just - yeah." He nodded, staring steadfastly at the wall.

"Now the only question is: How do we get out?" Her gaze trailed up the sandy walls of the moat, which were far too high and slippery for them to climb.

"You know," called a voice from above, "you _could_ stop defiling my moat and just ask us for help." The boop troupe was leaning over the edge of the castle, expressions of mild amusement on their faces.

Ren nodded, adding, "I would be willing to lend you a bit of rope as long as you promise not to use it illicitly."

"Oh, c'mon, Renny, they're not there _yet!_ " Nora giggled, disappearing as she slid through the castle's roof-hole. "They've been official for just a few hours."

"True," he conceded, following her. "Besides," he muttered, his low voice carrying, "Pyrrha would probably prefer chains, so she could control them."

" _Ren!"_ Nora giggled, pretending to be scandalized. This side of Ren was familiar to her; after all, she knew him better than anyone. The two in the moat, however, were heartily surprised - not to mention embarrassed. Nevertheless, they accepted the rope that their teammates lowered to them, and eventually were out of the moat. Pyrrha ducked into the castle to fetch a cover-up while Jaune turned on his heel and marched out until the waves were up to his waist, leaving Nora and Ren chucking in his wake.

* * *

Jaune returned some time later, sopping wet and shivering. Pyrrha helped him towel off, almost necessitating his return to the water, and wrapped him up in a second towel. Only then did he notice her cover-up - it was, after all, quite dark by this point. "Pyr," he murmured, his hand reaching out to touch the fabric that brushed her thigh, "is this my shirt?"

"Y-Yes! I hope you don't mind," she said earnestly, her fingers gripping the neckline. "I just got so cold, and my own cover-up got all wet somehow. I can give it back, if you like."

"Nah, keep it. Looks better on you, anyway." That same half-grin crept across his face as he stepped closer to her, eliminating the space between their bodies. "But if you have my shirt, then that means I'll have to stay warm some other way."

She ducked her head before looking up at him through her eyelashes; this was a calculated move, and one that worked well. Jaune's sudden burst of smoothness vanished, and he flushed. Her lips curved into a smirk. "I could get behind that."

"Or in front of that!" Nora barked out a laugh, as she and Ren were within earshot. When the embarrassed pair turned to her, fuming, she put up her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Hey, I was just repeating what Ren said!"

They turned, agape, to look at an unabashed Ren. He shrugged at them before gesturing to the roof of the sandcastle. "Stars, anyone?"

"Ooh, yeah!" Nora squealed, grabbing Ren by the hand and dragging him up to the aforementioned stargazing platform.

Bemused, Jaune turned to Pyrrha and held out his hand. "Shall we?"

Smiling, she took it. "We shall."

The four of them laid on their backs, staring up at the starry sky. The constellations seemed to draw themselves across the inky backdrop, sparkling and twinkling. Ren raised an arm into the air, pointing out the different shapes and telling their stories. Nora was silent for once, curled into his side and listening to the tales he had learned for her so long ago. Jaune's gaze drifted from the sparks above them to the girl next to him; he found her already observing him, an odd expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" he murmured, shifting closer to her so as to not to interrupt Ren's stories.

"Nothing, I'm just so… happy." She swallowed, rolling onto her side to face him. "I don't remember the last time I felt like this."

"Aw, Pyr…." He reached out a hand, using his thumb to wipe away the tear rolling down her face.

"Just… being here with all of you… _being_ with you… it's like heaven to me."

These words pinged against something dangerous in Jaune's mind, threatening to bring another life crashing into this reality. He pulled her across the little sand separating them, holding her to his body, fighting to stay.

He was cold, so cold, and there was a forest above him, there was snow falling on his face, and that was just a stick poking his cheek -

No, it was Pyrrha, tapping his face to make sure he was awake. "Are you that tired?"

"No - no, I'm fine." A relieved smile made its way onto his face, and his arms tightened around her for a moment before relaxing. "I'm better than fine."

"I'm glad." She pressed a kiss to his cheek, then rolled out of his embrace and onto her back.

Ren was pointing at a different constellation now, tracing its shape for Nora to see. "...And that one is the Scepter, the one wielded by the Life-Bearer in the ancient tales. She shook her scepter over the rocks of the land to make dust."

"But her story didn't have a happy ending, did it?" Nora sighed, reaching up as if to grab the scepter. "She died."

"Yes, but if you look over there…" Ren caught her hand in his, dragging it across the sky to trace another grouping of stars, "...you'll see that she's not alone anymore. That's the Shield, the one carried by her lover. That they're both in the sky means that they're together again."

"But didn't her lover get married after the Life-Bearer was killed in battle?"

"She did have to wed, but it was to end the war. If she hadn't, then many more people would have died. And look…" He took her hand again, pulling it to a space halfway between the two constellations. "That's the Crown. They're together there, sharing the crown that celebrates the links between life and death."

"So it's not such a sad story after all," Nora hummed, her lips finding the curve of Ren's jaw.

Pyrrha turned her head, her gaze shifting from the stars to her knight. "Not a sad story at all."

"What?" he murmured, not having completely heard her. She had just opened her mouth when Nora's yell cut her off.

"A shooting star! Everyone, make a wish!"

"Can't only one person make one?" Jaune asked, watching it fall across the sky.

"No, hurry! They're more powerful than that!"

And so the four closed their eyes and wished - for safety, for happiness, for love, for _forever._

Forever indeed seemed to stretch out before them as they laid there a while longer, watching the stars - none of them felt particularly tired, as they had all taken naps earlier in the day. There were no more shooting stars, but they did see something that Nora was convinced was a UFO. Other than the mild amount of chaos that followed this assumption, their stargazing continued uninterrupted for the space of a couple hours. As the night was chill, the four of them scooted closer together as dawn drew nearer, sharing body heat. It was not until the first few streaks of color began sneaking their way onto the horizon that Nora spoke.

"So, anyone up for a bonfire breakfast?" She sat up, stretching her back with a nasty pop. "Owch."

"A what now?" Jaune muttered, shaking Pyrrha's hair out of his face.

"A breakfast bonfire! You know, like you do when you sleep overnight on the beach! It's tradition!" Her arms made soft swishing sounds as she waved them about far too energetically for the early hour.

"Nora," Ren yawned, rolling over so that he could steal more of her heat, "I think that was just our families."

"But then why are they all making them?"

"Who - oh." All up and down the beach, people were trooping out onto the sand and preparing to make small bonfires. "I guess it spread. But I didn't bring any breakfast foods with me."

"Then why don't Jaune and I head into town to buy some while you two get the fire started?" Pyrrha suggested, sitting up and rolling her neck. "That should save us some time."

Her partner nodded, sitting up as well. "Good idea. You guys think you can scare up enough wood to make a fire?"

"Yup! We saw some earlier, and Renny can enlist his hermit crab minions to help, too!"

"Oh I can, can I?"

"Definitely!"

"C'mon," Jaune muttered, tugging Pyrrha towards the sand castle's trap door, "let's leave the love sloths to their chaos and go grab some stuff to cook."

Pyrrha grinned and followed him, tossing a wink back at a blushing Nora. "Don't worry, we won't forget the pancake stuff."

"Or the syrup!" Nora called after them, glad for the distraction. "Don't you dare forget the syrup!"

* * *

The road to town was deserted, the pale light of the coming dawn illuminating their steps. The new couple walked close together, using the slight chill in the air as an excuse. Signs of life began showing themselves in the windows of the shops; a small grocery store on the corner opened its doors, and so that was where they went. The tiny shop was empty save for the elderly woman behind the counter, who acknowledged their entrance with a nod. They left her to her newspaper and began wandering the aisles in search of ingredients and supplies. The first aisle was mostly dry foods, including granola, chips, and cereal. It was in front of the latter of these that Jaune paused, that odd other-life sense tugging behind his eyes, as if he should be crying….

"Is something wrong, Jaune?" Pyrrha had stopped a few paces in front of him and turned back, her damp hair shining under the grocery store lights. The cereal boxes around her bore her face, smiling at him as the real Pyrrha tilted her head.

"No… nothing at all." He gave her a half-smile, pushing down that feeling from another life. "I was just struck dumb for a moment by being surrounded by all this beauty."

"To be fair, that's not too hard to do," she smirked, tossing a wink at him.

"Why, you…." He growled, his half-smile growing into a full grin as he lunged at her, catching her around the waist. "Is this a habit of yours? Stunning people so you can cut them down with words?"

"Mmm… maybe," she laughed, "I must admit it's rather fun."

"You've quite murdered me with your words, you know. Does that make you a," he paused, nodding at the boxes of Pumpkin Pete's cereal around them, " _cereal_ killer?"

She groaned, and his her face against his neck - because of the awful pun, not for an excuse to be closer to him. Really. "You've been spending too much time around Yang."

"So are you saying that you want to have me all to yourself?" One of his hands slipped up to trace the curve of her jaw, tilting her chin upward. "Hmmm?"

Pyrrha's mouth was suddenly dry; she swallowed, but found herself incapable of forming a cohesive thought, much less an actual answer. When had he become so smooth?

"Because," he continued, sweeping his hand to indicate the cereal around them. "I think that's a pretty _bran_ idea."

Smoothness officially nullified. "You really _have_ been spending too much time with Yang."

"You didn't deny it. Or were you just trying to get my _oat_?"

Though she rolled her eyes, the corners of her mouth twitched. "We've got breakfast supplies to gather, and I don't think cereal would mix well with the beach."

"True, true," he nodded. "It would cereal-ly be a disaster… okay, that one was weak."

Shaking her head, Pyrrha grabbed his hand and led him down the aisle. "Come on, my silly knight. The natives will get restless if we're gone too long."

 _Pyrrha is holding my hand._ Sure, they had kissed, but… this somehow seemed more real, more - _More what?_ He wondered, allowing her to guide him as he watched the lights dancing and shining in the strands of her damp hair. Watched the subtle sway of her hips as she walked, the way her free hand skipped and danced over the shelves, reading what they held - the way her eyes danced when she glanced back at him, beaming at him, _because_ of him. Walking with her like this, just shopping for groceries… it seemed so right.

"Do you think we should get one of these little skillets? Nora did say she wanted pancakes." When he failed to respond, she met his awestruck gaze and snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. "Yoo-hoo, Jaune. Wake up, fishy."

"Wah! Yes? No? What? Oh. Skillet. Yes!" He gave a thumbs-up with his free hand. "We'll also need pancake mix, probably. For ease of making. And… oil? A bowl? A whisk? This seems way too complicated for the beach."

"When has anything ever been simple for our team?" Her fingers danced over the skillets, testing each before choosing the best of them.

"True." A chuckle slipped out, and he grazed his thumb over the skin of her hand. "D'you think we should've grabbed a basket?"

"That probably would have been a good idea, yes. Would you mind going back to grab one?"

"Not at all." Despite these words, he stood there.

"Jaune?"

"Yes?"

"Basket?"

"Ah, yes. That. You see, my dearest Pyrrha," he held up their linked hands for her to observe, "I cannot leave you while you still hold me."

"I'm sorry!" she gulped, attempting to drop his hand; his fingers tightened over her own, tugging her back towards him.

"As punishment, you must accompany me to the baskets." This time, he led her down the aisle, swinging their linked hands once she matched his pace. They retrieved the basket and made their way back down the aisle, the skillet clinking with every step. The elderly woman behind the counter fiddled with a machine, and music filled the store; the soft, slow techno-ballad filled the silence of the store.

 _The stars lean down to kiss you/and I lie awake and miss you/pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere/_

"I love this song," Pyrrha sighed, leaning into Jaune a bit as they continued down the aisle. "It's so sad, but so beautiful at the same time. It makes me almost wish that someone would miss me that much, if I were gone."

"I would." The words had fallen from his lips before he had had proper time to register them, but they were true; and some small part of him was aware that in another life, he _did_ miss her as much.

Her cheeks colored at this admission, and for a few lines of song she was unsure of what to say in response. Finally, she murmured, "Thank you," and squeezed his fingers with her own.

 _The silence isn't so bad/until I look at my hands and feel sad/_

He gave her a small smile, a part of him aware that when he was once again forced out of this reality into a harsher, colder one, he would be incapable of such an act. He tugged their linked hands up to his mouth and pressed a kiss to each of her knuckles, holding her gaze.

' _Cause the spaces between my fingers/Are right where yours fit perfectly_

She must have seen something of this in his eyes, for she declared, "Dance with me, Jaune."

"What?"

"Dance with me! We've got some nice space here, one of my favorite songs is on the radio, and we're buying groceries as the sun comes up, so dance with me."

"Now?"

"Now."

"But we're in a grocery store," he chuckled, already releasing her fingers so they could slide the basket to one side of the aisle.

"That's the point," she replied, eyes laughing as she stepped into his waiting arms. He merely grinned in response.

 _Waist-deep in thought because when/I think of you/I don't feel so alone/_

Their steps were simple at first, nothing close to what they had done at Beacon's dance; they stepped together and apart, rotating slowly on the spot.

 _I don't feel so alone/_

Jaune took Pyrrha's hand and spun her under his arm, then back against his chest - in the few moments she stayed there, she drew comfort from the steady thump of his heartbeat.

 _As many times as I blink/I'll think of you tonight/_

Another spin, and this time she stayed close to him, her head tucking beneath his chin to rest on his chest.

 _I'll think of you tonight/_

He pressed a kiss to her temple as they swayed, letting the instrumental portion of the song flow through them, building their pace until the next verse began and they pulled apart enough to dance properly.

 _When violet eyes get brighter/and heavy wings grow lighter/I'll taste the sky and feel alive again/_

Pyrrha clasped his hands in her own and stretched back, her arms straight; she then tugged Jaune back towards her, their torsos touching. He took the lead, spinning her out along one of his arms.

 _And I'll forget the world that I knew/but I swear I won't forget you_

And as she spun back towards him, her face glowing with joy, he knew that he would gladly have those particular lyrics come true; he longed to forget that other reality, to only remember this happiness.

 _Oh if my voice could reach back through the past/I'd whisper in your ear/_

She reached him, and he spun her under his arm once, twice, three times, before catching her waist and holding her back to his front.

" _Oh darling, I wish you were here."_

And for that moment, the realities meshed enough for the lyrics to make sense, for Jaune to be aware of why he was so loathe to wake up: For every time he awakened, every time he reached across the sleeping area to find a cold, empty spot - every time he awoke to a world in which Pyrrha Nikos existed no more… it was like losing her all over again. So in this dream world, he held her tightly, silently begging her to not slip away, willing the unawareness of the other reality to snap back into place. The latter did so after a moment, and he traced a kiss along her neck. The music ended; neither moved, content to melt together for a few precious moments longer.

"Oi!" the woman behind the counter called back to them, her voice scratchy against their ears. "Save the dancin' for when ya don't have yer pants!"

What a way to ruin the moment. The two separated, bowed to each other, and picked up the basket once more, red-faced but glowing with happiness. They wandered the aisles for some time, examining the products. Pyrrha paused in front of a shelf, tugging Jaune to a stop.

"Jaune…"

"Yeah, Pyr?"

"Do you want a kiss?"

"S-Sure!" He turned back to face her, only to find a bag of kiss chocolates between them. Pyrrha was giggling; he gave her a grin before pushing the bag out of the way and stealing a non-chocolate kiss.

"Come to think of it," she murmured a few moments later, "bar chocolate is much better for s'mores. We should get that instead."

"Yeah… besides," he chuckled, pulling back and plopping the bag back into place among its kin, "I think I like this type of kiss" - he gave her a quick peck on the lips - "much better."

"As do I."

"For cryin' out loud, you two, save it for the bedroom!" echoed from the front of the store. They grinned conspiratorially, cheeks red, and continued on their way. The remainder of their shopping trip was peaceful; they gathered more pancake necessaries, syrup, sausages, and s'more supplies before heading up to the counter to check out. As they approached, the elderly woman set aside her newspaper with a rustle and leaned forward, bracing her elbows on the counter.

"So, you two looking for some sex on the beach?"

The basket, fortunately devoid of eggs, hit the floor with a _clang_ as their hands went simultaneously slack.

"I beg your pardon?" Pyrrha squeaked, regaining her voice after a moment of dead silence.

"...W-wouldn't that be really sandy…?" Jaune murmured weakly, but did not deny the claim.

The clerk raised an eyebrow. "I mean the drink, sugar. I daresay you two don't need my help for the real deal… hell, you've probably already knocked boots so hard they're miles out to sea. Not that I'd say no if ya did need some pointers." She winked at them, then wiggled her fingers. "You gonna buy something or not?"

Red-faced, Pyrrha nodded, scrambling to pick up the basket and put it on the counter. In her flustered state, her semblance responded; the skillet flew out of the basket and nearly took out one of the ceiling lights. Fortunately, Jaune managed to catch it before it could cause any damage. She apologized, taking his hand and giving it a quick squeeze.

The woman began speaking again as she rung up their items with all the speed of Nora's favorite animal. "Lucky that your guy saved that, sugar. Those lights there are damned expensive."

"Mmm… my real knight in shining armor, yeah?" A smirk flitted across her face as she observed the darkening of Jaune's cheeks.

"Yeah, and I bet you just _love_ his big sword." She rolled her neck, which emitted several loud cracks, and glanced at Pyrrha, whose mouth had fallen open. "Oh, sugar, I don't need a demonstration of the size. I know how all of that works."

After a beat, Pyrrha's mouth snapped shut, her face reddening as she realized what the elderly woman meant. "I-I wasn't… we haven't…."

"No head yet? What, does sir silence over there not give as good as he gets with that tongue of his?"

Pyrrha's thoughts cannot be recorded in this telling - not because this is partially Jaune's dream, but because even the authoress refuses to deal with such coarse language. Let it be known that she gaped at the crass elder, mouthing soundlessly for so long that Jaune snapped out of his own horrified silence.

"Ma'am, I think you've got the wrong idea. We've been dating for like six hours tops."

"So you've not bedded her yet?" she snorted, continuing to ring up their items at a sleepy sloth's pace. "Let me tell you something, sir knight. I've been around in my day -"

"Ma'am, I don't think I want to hear this."

"- so I know how it all works," she continued, ignoring him.

"I _know_ I don't want to hear this." Jaune muttered.

"So I can tell you _exactly_ what a woman wants in bed, and how to get her there." She paused, glancing up at him and arching an eyebrow. "Still don't want to hear it?"

Jaune said nothing, merely exchanging a helpless glance with a still-silent Pyrrha.

"First, you've got to treat her like she's the top - in both senses. There's nothing better than some good, solid respect with a few dashes of worship and a pinch of fear. Yer gal's a hurricane, and you're standing in the center. Show her how much in awe of her ya are with every breath ya take."

Jaune furrowed his brow, stepping closer despite himself.

"Take it slow if ya need to, but listen to what you both want. I personally recommend fuckin' like rabbits in heat, so long as you're both good to go. I'll toss a few free rubbers in your bag so you don't wind up with bunnies. But once you're there -" she paused, scanned the last item, punched a few buttons, and gave them their total. They split the cost, tucking the receipt into the bags she handed them. "Once you're there, never stop treating her like she's more sublime, more awe-inspiring than any being to walk this planet. If you believe that and let it show through, you'll have the happiest woman on this hell-torn planet in your arms." Her gaze turned to Pyrrha, who had come back to herself during this speech. "And you, sugar - the same. Be good to each other, ya hear?"

"We… we will," they promised, shifting the bags to their outside hands so they could link fingers again.

"And I do recommend sex on the beach, by the way - if you bang in the water, you don't have any mess to clean up!" She called after them, winking. "Just make sure you don't half-drown when you toss your head back - a wave to the face makes for some awkward resuscitation, believe me… though I'm sure you've already got the mouth-to-mouth down pat, eh?"

The sounds of her chuckling and the rustling of her newspaper followed them halfway down the block.

* * *

"Jaune, I've just thought of something," Pyrrha said as they approached the beach.

"What?"

"The beach is famous for its morning bonfires, and we can't see the sand castle from this angle. How on earth are we going to find them? I don't remember where we were!"

He bit his lip, thinking. "Maybe we'll just have to wander up and down the beach until we see the castle? It's not like it's that hard to spot."

"Right. I'm sorry, I'm just a bit out of it. Too little sleep and too many awkward situations."

"I'd hate to see what that lady could come up with if she and Nora put their heads together," he groaned.

She elbowed him, grinning. "I'd _love_ to hear what she had to say about Ren and Nora. They're together-together now, right? I saw the cat with them."

"I think so? They're them." An awful thought struck him. "If we go back and they're doing it in the sand castle, I vote we leave without them."

"As much as that would be preferable, Jaune, I'm not wearing anything but my swimsuit and your t-shirt. I hardly think that anyone back at Beacon would take that correctly."

"Especially our neighbors across the hall."

"Yang's going to be _awful_ about this."

"I can hear the puns now," Jaune muttered, leaning over to hide his face in Pyrrha's hair. "Can't we just stay on the beach forever?"

Her head tipped back at his touch. "Mmm… I'd like that. Just you and me, and maybe Ren and Nora - just us on the beach, forever. Alone together."

"I think you mean alone together-together."

She laughed, breaking the moment, and they continued down the broken sidewalk to stairs at the top of the cliff over the beach. At the top of these, the halted, peering down the sand.

Near the foot of the stairs, there was a little bonfire crackling merrily in the early light of the dawn.

A dozen feet after that, there was another small one, sending sparks into the air.

A third flickered on the other side of three umbrellas.

Down the beach, this pattern continued: Little bonfire, little bonfire, little bonfire…

 _FWOOM._

In the near-distance, an inferno shot into the sky.

"There they are."

* * *

Nora, it had transpired, had found an abandoned stack of grocery store pallets and had somehow convinced Ren that lighting them all on fire without cutting them up was a good idea. Needless to say, cooking proved a bit more difficult than they had imagined, but they eventually made a decent breakfast - after the first few rounds were scorched beyond recognition.

They stayed with the fire and the castle for several more hours, switching off who was tending it and who was out playing. After all, it was not like they could just leave such a giant blaze on the beach; they had to wait it out. Thus, Ren and Nora swam while Jaune and Pyrrha laughed by the flames, before they switched off; Jaune and Pyrrha then set off to gather sea glass while the love sloths collapsed near the heat of the flames. Their efforts were fruitful; Pyrrha was able to mix a large amount of sea glass in with her shell collection. On their way back to the castle, they encountered something truly unusual: a bridal party. There seemed to be a problem with the gazebo which the couple had intended to use - leakage, waves, etc. - so after a brief conference, Jaune and Pyrrha walked over to them.

"Excuse us," Pyrrha said, tapping one of the adults on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, we're kind of busy right now - oh my goodness!" The woman's eyes became quite round as she recognized the teen, and she was suddenly much more willing to listen.

"We didn't mean to intrude, but we overheard that there's some sort of problem with the gazebo?"

"Yes! There's an awful infestation of marine life; I can't imagine what's gotten into all of them."

"Are they hermit crabs?" Jaune inquired, peeking over the woman's shoulder.

"No," she replied, taken aback. "Why?"

"Never mind," he grinned, correctly guessing that giving the real explanation would raise more questions than it answered.

"Anyway, we know of another spot you could use, just down the beach a bit, if you're in a fix. It's free, too." Pyrrha smiled, and pointed back towards the blaze. "One of our friends is… talented. They could get married in a real sand castle, or on top of one, at least. We can clear out of there as soon as you need it, so long as you don't mind watching the fire to make sure it dies eventually."

After some mild hysteria and some bickering, the wedding group accepted the offer with many thanks. Pyrrha and Jaune set back off down the beach, pausing only long enough to watch the white cat from earlier sneeze near the bride, guaranteeing her a happy marriage. Back at the castle, they explained the situation to Ren and Nora, who were pleased with the arrangements; the only trouble came from the hermit crabs, who Ren had to convince to return to their previous homes. The four then packed up their things and changed back into their regular clothes, received the thanks of the harried bride and groom, and set off for their ride back to Beacon.

As they boarded their transportation, Jaune whispered to Pyrrha, "Tired?"

"Exhausted," she murmured, slipping into the seat beside him, "but happy."

"Me, too. Want me to carry you back home?"

"Today?"

"Yeah. All the way back to Beacon, over the threshold, and into the dorm. And…" His cheeks colored again, and he was all too aware of the meaning of his words as he spoke again. "And someday I'd like to carry you over a different threshold. One that's _ours_."

She smiled at him, sleep glazing her eyes; he fought sleep, for sleeping in this world meant awakening in the other, crueler world. "A wedding on the beach is pretty romantic, yeah?"

"Yeah. I bet we could convince Nora to build us another sandcastle."

She grinned more widely, ducking her head; he tilted her chin up with a finger and kissed her softly, sweetly - as if they had all the time in either world.

Somehow, the ride back to Beacon didn't take long at all.

When they arrived, Jaune found himself unable to carry Pyrrha over the threshold, due to someone else needing carrying more: Ren. The events of the past forty-eight hours had quite worn him out, and as Nora had run herself similarly ragged, she was in no state to carry him, despite her best efforts. In the end, Pyrrha piggybacked Nora and Jaune lugged Ren into the dorm, Pyrrha using her semblance to float their mercifully metal beach equipment containers after them. Once they had the sleeping love sloths tucked into the same bed, Jaune tugged Pyrrha back out into the hall.

"Yes?" she inquired, stifling a yawn. Neither of them noticed when the door across the hall opened, as Jaune chose that moment to sweep Pyrrha up bridal-style and carry her over the threshold of their room. She let out a gasp of laughter as he set her back on her feet, and then she leaned up to claim his lips with her own.

"Jeez, did you two have a picnic of your own on that beach? I didn't know you liked sausage that much, Pyrrha. I could have sworn you were more into cream."

The two broke apart, already knowing who they would find smirking at them. Yang chuckled, leaning against the doorframe of her team's room.

"Well, judging by that little charade, I'm guessing you either eloped or are ridiculously cheesey. Possibly both, more likely just the latter." She tossed them a wink over her shoulder as she strutted down the hall, calling back to them, "When the ground starts shaking, I'm going to blame you two!"

They rolled their eyes at each other behind her back and shut the door.

The earth did not move that night, but Pyrrha had never slept more soundly. And Jaune?

Jaune fought sleep, savoring every moment that he held her in his arms, every gentle puff of breath that tickled the skin of his neck, every steady thump of her heart. Eventually, he could fight the pull of the darkness no longer, and slipped out of this reality and into the next, a song popping into his mind, a song that would haunt his waking hours….

 _The stars lean down to kiss you/and I lie awake and miss you/pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere…._

 **Ta-daaa~! A ton of additional fluff to make up for the end of last chapter. As of now, this is it for this fic. I'm thinking of heading back to Skip Beat after this, or maybe another renora. Please drop me a review to let me know how you liked this! Also, the bonfire inferno was based off of something my Dad did in his twenties.**

 **On a side note, I have two big things coming up, both of which will affect my writing:**

 **One, I will be starting college soon, and thus will have less time to write.**

 **Two, I turn 18 on the 26th, and will officially be able to write smut, so y'all have that to look forward to eventually.**


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